Five year old Jamie has just learned to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Congratulations to Kiersten and Caleb who have joined La Jeunesse Youth Orchestra this year. These two also won the talent competition at the Warkworth Fall Fair (for the second year in a row!) and received as their prize a recording session at a local studio. Way to go!
News
Workshop sharing “OliTunes”
On Friday, October 23, 2009, fiddlers Emilyn Stam & Jaron Freeman-Fox came to Port Hope to share some “OliTunes” with us. We learned some new tunes, and even wrote one of our own: Castle of Pizza. The two selections featured here were recorded at the adult workshops held on Saturday, October 24.
Listen to Love March.
Listen to White Sails, Blue Skies.
Students Julie (age 10, Hamilton Twp) and Caleb (15, Vernonville) performed on Saturday, August 1, 2009 at Port Hope Estival in a “compact” version of our fiddle group, String Fever. Julie’s brother Ryan (12) , played guitar and Caleb’s sister, Suzanne (18), played piano. Their teacher, John Tapscott (Harwood), anchored the rhythm section on bass, and John’s son, Kyler, was our very capable sound man. Special thanks to photographer, Larry Keely for the awesome photos!
Horizons of Friendship, Cobourg, held their annual Garden Tour on Sunday, July 12th, 2009. While Deborah performed at the home of Greg & Ann Hancock with The Ancient Music Trio, a group of her Simply Strings students led by Kiersten (age 14, from Warkworth) and pianist, Suzanne (18, from Grafton area), entertained at the home of Diana Desjardins, on Bickle Hill Rd. Pictured here are two of Deborah’s youngest students, Otto (8, from Norwood) and Hannah (6, from Hamilton Twp). Also performing with the group were: Taylor (14, Cobourg), Eva (12, Campbellford), Kyle (18, Port Hope), and Kurt (17, Colborne). It was a long afternoon of playing, but the group performed admirably, with many favourable comments from visitors.
On Thursday, June 18, 2009, members of Deborah’s String Fever fiddle group headed to Frankford, to perform at Fiddlers on the Trent. Deborah has taken groups to this event for the past 5 years, and they are now a “requested” group at the opening Youth Night performance. Playing fiddle were: Caleb (15), Eva (12), Quinn (11) and Julie (10). Ryan (12) played guitar; Suzanne (18) played keyboard; and special guest, Oisin (10) played bodhran.
The Port Hope Friends of Music sponsored “Music Monday” events in and around Port Hope on Monday, May 5, 2009, in support of music education and teachers in Canada. A group of Deborah’s students gave a warmly received performance at the home of Stephanie Mackenzie. Pictured from left to right are: (back row) Nafshiya (11), Caleb (15), Suzanne (18), Urgon (10), Joseph (12), Deborah ; (front) Otto (8), Hannah (6), Connor (9), Quinn (11). Also performing were: Julie (10), David, (10), Eva (12), and Ryan (12). Thanks to Selena Forsyth for the group photo!
On May 24, 2008, a group of over 400 friends calling themselves “Val’s Pals” gathered at the Cobourg Lion’s Centre for a special birthday party for Val Curran of Cobourg, mother of two of Deborah’s students. The real purpose of the party was a benefit for the Curran family to help them with the cost of Val’s cancer treatment. Simply Strings Orchestra performed, as did some of Deborah’s youngest students. Everyone had a great time and the event was highly successful.
The annual conference of the Suzuki Association of Ontario was held in Cobourg on November 10-11, 2007. Deborah was on the organizing committee and among other duties, she made arrangements for a violin workshop at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Cobourg with guest clinician, Pat D’Ercole. Many of Deborah’s students took advantage of this opportunity to spend an hour with a different teacher and students from other studios. There were two sessions, with over 50 students participating from Suzuki violin teachers in Peterborough, Oshawa/Durham area, Bowmanville, as well as Cobourg/Port Hope.